FLORIDA PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY

NEWSLETTERVOLUME 26 NO. 1 SPRING 2009

Florida Paleontological Society, Inc. Fall Meeting – November 7-9, 2008Gainesville, FloridaThe weather was perfect as more than 40 FPS members caravanned out to Thomas Farm on Saturday morning, November 8th. For those who had not visited the site before it was diffi cult to know what to expect. The farm is located in Gilchrist County about a 45 mile drive northwest of Gainesville. Most people who have

read anything about Florida vertebrate paleontology have heard of Thomas Farm; it is one of the most fa-mous vertebrate fossil sites in the United States. Con-sidering the distance and how many vehicles were in-volved the caravanning went smoothly and before long we were all gathered at the fossil site. Dr. Dave Steadman gave us a brief and very in-formative talk about the history and nature of Thomas Farm. The fossil site consists of a sinkhole that was gradually infi lled with soil and animal remains in Mio-cene times, between approximately 16 and 20 million

years ago. The site was discovered in the early 1930's and was fi rst excavated by Harvard University. Af-ter World War II, the University of Florida took over excavations at Thomas Farm and has been collecting there ever since. The best known and most numerous fossils found here are those of three species of horse all of which had three toes and were browsers rather than grazers. More than 90 other vertebrate species have been found at Thomas Farm ranging from large herbi-vores to very small reptiles, amphibians and birds.

After the talk we were allowed to collect fos-sils in the spoil piles that surround the active dig site. These piles proved to contain many well-preserved bones and teeth especially those of Parahippus leo-nensis, the most common horse species at this site. The fact that toe bones of Parahippus were so com-mon is not surprising, after all they have 3 times as many toes as modern horses. Hoof cores, foot, and partial leg bones of horse species were found as well as numerous teeth. A rare fi nd, a bone possibly of a species of cat not yet found at Thomas Farm, was

The Fall FPS fi eld trip to Thomas Farm, an Early Miocene vertebrate site was very well at-tended. Spoil piles yielded numerous remains of the three-toed horse Parahippus.

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FLORIDA PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETYOFFICERS AND BOARD

President: Marge Fantozzi, 101 Olympus Drive, Ocoee, FL 34761 mfantozzi@aol.comPresident-Elect: Wally Ward, 701 TC Jester Boulevard, Suite 8102, Houston, TX 77008 ampyx901@msn.comPast President: Melissa Cole, 904 Red Bird Lane, Altamonte Springs, FL 32701 leaf123456@aol.comVice President: Harley Means, Florida Geological Survey, Gunter Building MS 72, 903 West Tennessee Street, Tallahassee, FL 32304 Guy.Means@dep.state.fl .usSecretary: Marcia Wright, 1550 Mizell Avenue, Winter Park, FL 32789 mmorganw@aol.comTreasurer: George Hecht, Florida Museum of Natural History Box 117800, Gainesville, FL 31611 ghecht@fl mnh.ufl .edu

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Greta Polites, Lewisburg,PA, 2009 Gordon Hubbell, Gainesville, 2009Gary Schmelz, Naples, 2010 Jonathan Bloch, Gainesville, 2010 Phyllis Diegel, W Palm Bch, 2010 Roger Portell, Gainesville, 2011Sara Morey, Frostproof, 2011

COMMITTEES AND APPOINTMENTS

Book Committee: R. HulbertNominations: M. ColeFinance: G. Hecht, R. PortellMembership: G. HechtHonorary Members and Awards: B. ToomeyHistorical: G. HechtBoard of Editors: A. Kittle, J. Herrera, R. HulbertResident Agent: B. MacFadden

HONORARY MEMBERS

Anita Brown, Robin Brown, Barbara & Reed Toomey, Gary Morgan, Clifford Jeremiah, Gordon Hubbell, David Webb

LIFE MEMBERS

Barbara FiteJoan Herrera

Richard HulbertRoger Portell

James ToomeyBarbara Toomey

INFORMATION, MEMBERSHIP, AND PUBLICATIONS

Address: Secretary, Florida Paleontological Society, Inc. Florida Museum of Natural History, P.O. Box 117800 University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-7800 (352) 273-2106 - email: fps@fl mnh.ufl .edu Website: http://www.fl mnh.ufl .edu/fps

donated to the museum by its lucky fi nder. After a couple of hours of this exciting activity we had an ex-cellent lunch and then returned to the piles for a little more collecting. During the course of the day many of us had our fi nds identifi ed by Dave Steadman and Richard Hulbert, who was also present. All too soon though, we ran out of time and had to head back to Gainesville for the evening's activities. At 6:00pm we met at the Bivens Condo club-house for a barbecue dinner catered by David's of Gainesville. After eating we all walked to a meeting

room at the nearby Paramount Hotel where Carol and Bernie Peterson were presented with the 2008 Howard Converse Award; given for outstanding contributions to Florida paleontology. Afterwards the evening's pro-gram began. The fi rst speaker was Larisa DeSantis, a recipi-ent of FPS' Morgan Award who gave a presentation on "Paleoecology of highly fossiliferous tapir localities in the southeastern United States". Larisa studied fossil tapir sites at a road construction project near the town of Gray in eastern Tennessee and at Haile Quarry near Gainesville. Among the conclusions she reached was

Carol and Bernie Peterson (center and right) receive the 2008 Howard Converse Award from Roger Portell (left)

Page 3

that the presence of fossil tapirs indicated a fairly wet climate in or near hardwood forests. To learn more about Larisa’s research go to: www.discoverbiodiver-sity.com/LarisaDeSantis.html Our second speaker was Dana Ehret whose pre-sentation was titled "Fishing for fossil sharks in Peru".

Dana's talk was fascinating for all of us. Besides, who doesn't want to know more about fossil sharks? Dana related how he accompanied Bruce MacFadden and Douglas Jones, both of FLMNH and three other col-leagues on a quest to locate the collection site of an ex-traordinary fossil great white shark in the collection of Gordon Hubbell. After some clever detective work, the site was located and the information gathered will help clear up some of the mysteries of shark evolution. To read the entire story of this interesting quest go to: www.research.ufl .edu/publications/explore/past/fall2007/story_1/index.html

The evening's fi nal speaker was Jon Bryan the author, along with Harley Means and Thomas Scott, of the new book Roadside Geology of Florida. This excellent book will be of interest not only to amateur paleontologists, but also anyone who wants to take a drive to enjoy and understand the scenery of our beau-

tiful state and how it got the way it is. After Jon’s talk, many of us bought a copy of the book (at a discount) and had Jon and Harley autograph them. It was late, and a somewhat sleepy group then made its way back to the Bivens clubhouse for the auction which included some very fi ne casts of fossils, books, and almost like-new clothing items. All in all it was one of the busiest, most rewarding, and most fun FPS meetings which we have attended.

Carol and Bernie Peterson

Ornithologist David Steadman delivers an historical account of the fossil excavations at Thomas Farm and describes his current research at this Early Miocene sink hole site.

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ANNUAL DUES for the FPS are $10.00 for Associate Membership (persons under age 18) and $20.00 for Full Membership (persons over age 18) and Institutional Subscriptions. Couples may join for $25.00, and Family Memberships (3 or more persons) are available for $30.00. Persons interested in FPS membership need only send their names, addresses, and appropriate dues to the Secretary, Florida Paleontological Society, Inc., at the address on page 2. Please make checks payable to the FPS. Members receive the FPS newsletter, Florida Fossil Invertebrates, Fossil Species of Florida, and other random publications entitled to members.

NEWSLETTER POLICY: All worthy news items, art work, and photographs related to paleontology and various clubs in Florida are welcome. The editors reserve the right not to publish submissions and to edit those which are published. Please address submissions to the Editors, Florida Paleontological Soceity, Inc. Newsletter, at the address inside the front cover.

FLORIDA PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY, INC.

As stated in the Articles of Incorporation, “The purposes of this Corporation shall be to advance the science of Paleontology, especially in Florida, to disseminate knowledge of this subject and to facilitate cooperations of all persons concerned with the history, stratigraphy, evolution, ecology, anatomy, and taxonomy of Florida’s past fauna and fl ora. The Corporation shall also be concerned with the collection and preservation of Florida fossils.” (Article III, Section 1).

CODE OF ETHICS

ARTICLE X

Section 1. Members of the Florida Paleontological Society, Inc., are expected to respect all private and public properties.

Section 2. No member shall collect without appropriate permis-sion on private or public properties.

Section 3. Members should make a sincere effort to keep them-selves informed of laws, regulations, and rules on collecting on private or public properties.

Section 4. Members shall not use fi rearms, blasting equip-ment or dredging apparatuses without appropriate licenses and permits.

Section 5. Members shall dispose of litter properly.

Section 6. Members shall report to proper state offi ces any seemingly important paleontological and archaeological sites.

Section 7. Members shall respect and cooperate with fi eld trip leaders or designated authorities in all collecting areas.

Section 8. Members shall appreciate and protect our heritage of natural resources.

Section 9. Members shall conduct themselves in a manner that best represents the Florida Paleontological Society, Inc.

SOUTHERN FLORIDA’S FOSSIL SEASHELLS

BY FOSSIL SHELL COLLECTORSCarol and Bernie Peterson

This new book is geared toward amateur col-lectors and allows the novice to identify nearly 200 of southern Florida’s most common fossil seashells and other invertebrate fossils. More than 280 black and white photos of the back and front of each shell are included along with a brief description of each species. Anyone who enjoys collecting seashells will fi nd this book useful. Collectors of vertebrate fossils will be able to date their fi nds of bones and teeth, which are often found in association with fossil seashells in Florida, by identifying and dating those shells. The book is 6 inches by 9 inches and 140 pages.

Retail price is $24.95 plus S&H for mail or-ders. Dealer inquiries are invited: Contact the authors at bpeterson11@cfl .rr.com for individ-ual copies or bulk orders.

Order by credit card online at www.bluenote-books.com

Page 5

The meeting was called to order by out-going President, Melissa Cole. Others in attendance were: Marge Fantozzi (in-coming President), Harley Means (Vice-President), Marcia Wright (Secretary), George Hecht (Treasurer), and Board Members Roger Portell, Greg Herbert, Terry Lott, Sara A. Morey, Jonathan Bloch, and Phyllis Diegel. Joan Herrera (Editor) and Richard Duerr (Member) were also present. Melissa distributed photocopies of the design drawn by Russell Brown for our society t-shirts. Russell did this work gratis and donated the design to the FPS. Discussion followed and Melissa moved that we accept the design as presented. Marge Fantozzi seconded the motion, which carried. George Hecht will research the t-shirts and get an idea of costs and sizes needed. He will propose three different color schemes for the board members to consider and will e-mail board members for a vote. The 3-4 sentence bios and head-shot photos of so-ciety offi cers and board members are still not completed. Please make sure that these are sent to Melissa Cole. Me-lissa will forward them to Joan Herrera for the FPS web-site. There had been concern that the society website is not staying current. We need to make sure that meeting/fi eld trip information and dates are sent to Joan in a timely manner so that members can make realistic future plans for their attendance. Discussion followed about the possibility of changing our web server to one that facilitates selling of society merchandise. Roger Portell moved and Harley Means seconded a motion to set up the society with such a server and approved the money to pay for the service. George will be responsible for getting this done and will inform the board of his results. Typically, the biannual meeting auctions (and the Morgan Endowment investment) provide funding for the yearly Morgan Award. In an effort to increase interest in the Morgan Award for Florida students working on paleon-tological topics, several ideas were discussed. A motion to increase the amount of the award from $500 to $1000 was made by Roger Portell and seconded by Harley Means. The motion passed. Harley also made a motion to broaden the base of requirements for the award. It was seconded by Jonathan Bloch and passed. Jonathan Bloch, Greg Her-bert and Roger Portell will look into realistic requirement changes and will present their suggestions for discussion at the next meeting. The increase will take affect for the 2009 applicants.

The Spring 2009 meeting has been scheduled to be in the Tallahassee area with the help of Harley Means and Roger Portell, who graciously agreed to be our hosts. The date has been set for April 24-25. There are some nice fi eld trip possibilities in that area (Jackson Bluff) and the meet-ing might include a tour of the Florida Geological Survey and the Florida State University Antarctic facility. Roger Portell announced that he is stepping down as editor of the society’s newsletter and that Alex Kittle will take over the newsletter editing duties. Roger will stay in-volved initially to assist Alex with the transition. The next museum department that will be contrib-uting an article to the newsletter is paleobotany. Terry Lott will take care of this. George Hecht presented the treasurer’s report which was followed by lengthy discussion of several mon-etary concerns. The society needs to purchase (for sale) 16 more copies of Richard Hulbert’s The Fossil Vertebrates of Flor-ida. The motion to do so was made by Roger, seconded by Marge Fantozzi, and passed by the board. The extra copies of Papers in Florida Paleontol-ogy will be distributed to members (free-of-charge upon request) at upcoming FPS meetings. By the end of 2009, the society will need to reprint the M. C. Thomas book, Fossil Vertebrates, Beach and Bank Collecting for Amateurs. It is a very popular pub-lication and requests for purchase are steady. George will investigate the cost to reprint. Robin C. Brown is in the process of donating the rights to his book, Florida Fossils- Guide to Location, Iden-tifi cation, and Enjoyment, to the FPS. It is published by Pineapple Press. We will probably have to put some money into the process so we will have some books to sell. The board agreed to let Roger take care of the details and use his judgment for the transfer and set up for FPS sales. The FPS members’ display case will soon house a fossil selection from the late Nita Akin. The case is located outside the Florida Fossil Hall at the FLMNH’s Exhibits Hall. Members would like the case contents changed about every six months. It was suggested that we make a one-time donation to the graphics department at the museum for $250 to help defray the costs of setting up the case. Roger Portell so moved and Harley Means seconded. The motion passed. The board thanked out-going president, Melissa Cole for her two years of leadership, commitment, and a job well done. Melissa turned over her offi ce to our new president, Marge Fantozzi. The meeting was adjourned about 9:30 AM.

Respectfully submitted,Marcia M. WrightSecretary

Florida Paleontological Society, Inc.Board Meeting MinutesSunday, November 9, 2008, 8:00 AMGainesville, Florida

Page 6News from the Florida Museum of Nat-ural History’s Paleobotany and Paly-nology Division

The Paleobotany and Palynology team at the FLMNH continues to be active and productive in the study of fossil plants. Since the summer of 2006, 52 papers have been published or accepted for publication, and 20 research scientists from China, Russia, Portugal, The Netherlands, Egypt, Thailand, India and Panama as well as U.S. visi-tors from the USDA, NASA, Cornell University and Duke University have visited our lab. Since the Fall of 2007 one MS thesis (Fabiany Herre-ra) and one doctoral dissertation (Shusheng Hu) have been completed. We are happy to report that FLMNH alumnus, Dr. Shusheng Hu, was recently hired as Collections Manager for Paleobotany at the Peabody Museum, Yale University. Currently we have six research scientists and four gradu-ate students exploring the history of various plant groups through time (from Cretaceous to present) and geography (from Florida, the Caribbean, the Western Interior of North America, and China). Dr. David Dilcher, along with his Chinese colleague Dr. Ge Sun were once again featured in The NOVA television program called "First Flower" which aired in the spring of 2008. The program dealt with paleobotanical research on Archaefructus, an early angiosperm, as well as insights on angiosperm diversification from the perspective of molecular phylogeny by Drs Pam (FLMNH) and Doug Soltis (UF, Botany Dept.). Dilcher and Sun have completed three papers on fossil plants of Northeastern China including a new early angiosperm published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a review of early angiosperms and their possible origins, and a Late Cretaceous flora along the Heilongjiang River bordering China and Russia. With colleagues from Europe, Dilcher has pub-lished on Cooksonia and the life cycle of early Eutracheophytes, the influence of CO2 on a fern genus, Miocene CO2 fluctuations in relation to the evolution of terrestrial ecosystems, and Cenozoic paleotemperatures based on leaf physiognomy (in collaboration with Elizabeth Kowalski). With colleagues from Brazil, Dilcher has described a

new aquatic angiosperm and a new gymnosperm from the Crato Formation of Brazil, and with Richard Barclay (FLMNH alumnus) he pub-lished on the use of the extant Cuticle Database as a tool for the study of fossil cuticle. Dilcher has also co-authored a number of papers dealing with a wide range of subjects. These include the relationships of a large group of plant families, the rosids, using mitochondrial sequencing, the process of how arthropods and microorganisms are trapped in plant resin which reflect what we hypothesize for fossil amber, and with Dr. Man-chester, the integration of fossils with modern taxa using molecular and morphological charac-ters to explain the relationships within the walnut family (Juglandaceae). Dilcher also completed a brief autobiography focused upon his profession-al life, and has a number of manuscripts in press including a paper in a festschrift (tribute) to his Major Professor Ted Delevoryas. David and his research assistant, Terry are involved in several projects such as analyzing 114 million year old angiosperm leaves from Brazil, and continue to build a worldwide database of Early Angiosperm fossil records, including stratigraphy and refer-ences, some of which require translation from French, Spanish, and Russian. With Steve Man-chester, David and Terry will continue the Alum Bluff Macroflora Project. This site along the Apalachicola River is the only locality in Florida with a wide variety of fossil plants. Dr. Steven Manchester has received a 3-year National Science Foundation grant to study the fossil history of Vitaceae, with the catchy ti-tle, "Evolution, via the grape vine", which has led to field work in India and Panama, as well as his "old stomping grounds" in the Paleocene and Eocene of Wyoming. Steve has published a number of paleobotanical articles on such topics as Nyssaceae fruits from the Paleocene of North America, fruits and seeds from the Eocene of Or-egon, fruits of Icacinaceae from the Paleocene of Western North America, and an extinct flower of Dillhoffia from the Eocene of British Colum-bia. Manchester has also published journal ar-ticles on the biogeography of Dogwood relatives from the Paleocene and Eocene of Europe and North America, a fossil cashew from the Eocene

Page 7

of Europe and its biogeographical link between Africa and South America, a fossil history of the Christ-thorn shrub (Paliurus), and a seed of nut-meg affinities (Myristicaceae) found in the Early Eocene of Southern England. Other papers in-clude the phytogeography of Late Eocene Floris-sant Flora of Colorado where the geographical af-finities include present day warm temperate and subtropical Mexico, Central and Southern China, and Southeastern United States, and an account

on wood anatomy of modern Ulmaceae as a con-text to new reports of Late Eocene elm wood in Oregon. Dr. Hongshan Wang, in addition to the day-to-day curatorial activities as the Paleobota-ny and Palynology Collections Manager, contin-ues his research on the angiosperm floras of the Cretaceous Dakota Formation of western United States. Together with David Dilcher, Hongshan has published on Late Cretaceous angiosperm

leaves from Minnesota, Early Cretaceous aquatic angiosperms and leaves from Kansas, and Ginkgo leaves from the Middle Jurassic of Mongolia and China. They have also submitted three manu-scripts, a new fossil sycamore plant from the Cretaceous Dakota Formation of Kansas and ad-jacent Nebraska, fossil Ceratophyllum from Aus-tralia and North America, and Late Cretaceous angiosperm leaves from the Courtland Clay pit, Minnesota. Together with David Dilcher, Hong-

shan has been working on several projects such as documenting angiosperm fossil leaves from Cretaceous and Eocene localities of Tennessee. Hongshan, along with volunteer Jane Blanchard, is working on a project documenting fossil flow-ers, fruits, and seeds from an Eocene locality of western Tennessee. Volunteer Jim Beville, Hong-shan and David Dilcher are developing an Ex-cel database to aid in the identification of fossil plant leaves. Jim presented the database system

Bottom Row, left to right. Judy Chen, Nakia Wilson, Felipe De La ParraTop Row, left to right. David Jarzen, Fabiany Herrera, Hongshan Wang, Terry Lott, Steven Manchester, Paula Mejia, David Dilcher

Page 8

to the 25th Midcontinent Paleobotanical Collo-quium (MPC) in Mobile, Alabama on March 14-16, 2008. Under the guidance of Hongshan, vol-unteer Neil White is working on computerizing a modern pollen reference collection (ca. 3,500 slides) recently donated to the Paleobotany and Palynology Collection. Volunteer Odette Rivera is working on sorting the mesofossils from a Cre-taceous locality of Kansas. Terry Lott, and David Dilcher have recent-ly completed the FLMNH portion of the Cuticle Database Project, an Internet accessible database of cuticle types, prepared from modern leaves stored in the Paleobotany Collection. This is a valuable resource for comparisons and identifi-cation of commonly recovered fossil cu-ticle. This project is in collaboration with The Field Mu-seum, Northwestern University, and Penn State. They also con-tinue to count pol-len on a daily basis. These data are re-corded in our pollen database, a bi-week-ly report is sent to the Gainesville Sun, and we update our week-ly pollen chart on the Paleobotany WebSite (http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/pollen/). Da-vid and Terry have published two papers dealing with fruits and leaves of the pea family (Leguminosae) from the Miocene Eastern China. They have also sub-mitted manuscripts dealing with fossils of Podo-carpaceae, and a small flora from the Makum Coalfield of India. Under the guidance of Terry, Lenhs Louis and Nakia Wilson scanned in the Modern Leaf Collection for the Cuticle Project, and the 35mm slide collection. Terry was also involved in the identification of fossil sea grass from Iran, and the identification of plant remains from the talus cone in the Bahamas.

Dr. David M. Jarzen continues to publish papers on all aspects of palynology and its ap-plications. Along with Steve Manchester, Greg Retallack and Susan Jarzen, he edited a 258-page volume “Advances in Angiosperm Paleobotany and Paleoclimate Reconstructions-Contributions honouring David L. Dilcher and Jack A. Wolfe.” The volume, published in Courier Forschungsin-stitut Senckenberg, was published in 2007. With Dilcher and Lott, David contributed to a paper pub-lished in PNAS on the palynoflora and macroflora recovered from a late Quaternary sinkhole site on the island of Abaco in the Bahamas. Another con-tribution to PNAS with Hu and Dilcher involved a study of angiosperm-pollinator coevolution as

determined through a study of pollen clump-ing as recorded from the Cretaceous in Min-nesota. Additionally, as part of the graduate work of Shusheng Hu, Dilcher, Hu, and Jarzen published two reports, one on five new species of angiosperm pollen, and another on euspo-rangiate ferns, both re-covered from the Cre-taceous in Minnesota. Other work in press includes a study of an-giosperm pollen- bear-ing viscin threads from the Cretaceous and Paleocene in western Venezuela. This work was completed with Dr.

David Pocknall, palynologist at BP, Houston, Tex-as. Closer to home, David just published a study of the pollen adhering to the exoskeleton of stable flies. Stable flies are an important pest of hu-mans and livestock, and despite being blood feed-ers, they also visit flowers to eat nectar. Working with Jerome Hogsette (U.S. Department of Agri-culture), David examined the kinds of pollen at-tached to the flies collected from the University of Florida Horse Teaching Unit, to better understand the plants visited by the flies. This information

Pollen of primarily Asteraceae recovered from the drain tube of the Solid Rocket Boosters. Photo-graphed using UV-excitation fl uorescence illumi-nation.

Page 9

could be used to determine possible control of the movement and abundance of the flies. Work-ing with Bill Elsik (The MycoStrat Connection, Texas), David completed a manuscript which is now in press on new species of a fungal genus from tropical to warm temperate Neogene locali-ties and younger aged sediments around the world and represent an apparently undescribed extant fungus. Jarzen and Dilcher have submitted a manuscript on a palynological assessment of Ho-locene mangrove vegetation at the American Me-morial Park, Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands. This work clearly indicates that the occurrence of Australian pine predates the arrival of humans on the island. The work, commissioned by the US National Park Service, was designed to bet-ter understand the nature of the vegetation cover on the island prior to the activities of World War II. Other work submitted includes a preliminary look at the pollen of the three genera and many species of the family Pandanaceae. This work, with Martin Callmander (Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la ville de Genève, Switzerland), continues the work of the late Ben Stone (Phila-delphia Academy of Natural Sciences). David, along with Linda Nelson (United Space Alliance) worked with NASA to help solve a mystery con-cerning a recent Shuttle launch. The Solid Rock-et Boosters (SRB’s) frustum (the brains of the rockets), were found to contain, after retrieval from the Atlantic, a yellow liquid “gunk,” which on closer inspection, proved to be pollen depos-ited by bees prior to launch. Although not pos-ing a threat to the space shuttle program, NASA needed to fully understand the nature of the pol-len and the timing of inclusion in the SRB’s in order to continue future launches. Palynological studies demonstrated the timing, source and full nature of the pollen recovered. The results were presented at the McCrone Conference in Chicago in July, and will be published in the McCrone journal The Microscope, this year. Finally, Da-vid is nearing completion of the major palyno-logical treatment of the flora of the Alum Bluff outcrop. This study continues the work of Sarah Corbett’s Master’s thesis and compliments Steve Manchester’s contributions to the megaflora of the Neogene deposits in the Alum Bluff area.

Hopefully this work will be published in 2009. Judy Chen, under the sponsorship of Ste-ven Manchester, is now writing her dissertation detailing the morphology of all living genera of the grape family as a basis for analyzing the abun-dant fossil remains. Judy is investigating features of flower, fruit, stem, pollen, seeds, and develop-ment as they are distributed among modern and fossil species of Vitaceae to gain an improved un-derstanding of the phylogeny and classification of this family, which is now widely distributed in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. In fresh excavations of the Panama Canal organized through FLMNH alumnus, Carlos Jaramillo, they found a well-preserved grape seed (a first for Central America) as well as many other kinds of fruits and seeds that are giving new insights into the Miocene vegetation of Central America. She has also traveled to Australia, Malaysia, and Chi-na, and presented a paper on Vitaceae in Vancou-ver, Canada. Along with Manchester, Judy has published on a genus in the grape family based on modern and fossil seed morphology, and also a fossil fruit type from the Miocene of Western North America. Felipe De La Parra, a graduate student from the Geology Department, is interested in the fields of Paleobiology and Paleoecology, with emphasis in Paleobotany. Felipe is also interested in floristic biodiversity, its causes and how it re-lates to ecological stability, and how plant com-munities have responded to environmental crisis in the present and geological past. His plans to approach these questions use paleobiological in-formation by applying rigorous mathematical and statistical methods and by constructing theoretical models to understand the dynamics of the plant communities in the geological past. The result of this research can help us understand modern com-munities and their responses to the present envi-ronmental crisis. Fabiany Herrera has just finished his MS Degree in Geology (advisor David Dilcher) and has entered the PhD program at UF in Botany to work with Steve on Paleocene leaves collect-ed from northern Colombia and fruits and seeds from the Miocene of Panama. His research fo-cuses on paleobotany and paleoclimate. The goal

Page 10

of this project is to try to understand the evolu-tionary origin of ancient Neotropical rainforests, and the climatic settings under which those early forests appeared. Fabiany hopes to learn what mechanisms produced the high diversity of mod-ern South American rainforests, its phylogenetic history, and biogeography, and to explore the re-sponse of tropical climate to past global warming and its implications for global climate, especially during the early Paleogene (65-45 million years ago) and middle Miocene (~17 mya). Fabiany has published on Menispermaceae from the Middle to Late Paleocene of Colombia, and together with David Dilcher, on fossil Araceae also from Co-lombia. He, also has been coauthor of a review paper of the paleobotany of the Amazonia. Recent field work trips have been carried out in Colom-bia on new Paleocene floras, and extensive fossil collecting in Miocene and Eocene sediments of the Canal Zone and the Pacific coasts of Panama. Paula Mejia finished her Master’s thesis on the Biozonation of the Caballos Formation (Early Cretaceous) based on pollen and spores. She continues to work on her PhD dissertation analyzing palynological samples from different fossil sites of the tropics to determine floristic patterns of angiosperm diversity, abundance in the Lower Cretaceous, and predominant paleocli-matic conditions in the tropics during the origin and radiation of flowering plants. She has re-ceived the Jerry Britt award, a SEAGEP award, a poster competition award, and a Fellowship in the Schlumberger Foundation. She also recently returned from a field trip collecting Lower Creta-ceous palynological samples from the Crato For-mation of Brazil. Elizabeth Kowalski, a research affiliate with the museum, continues to be interested on the relationship between plants and climate. A chapter titled Paleobotany is being published soon in the Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments, and a paper is in the revision process in American Journal of Botany (with David Dilcher, Terry Lott, and others). In addition, Elizabeth has continued to increase the collections of Paleocene fossils from the Crazy Mountains Basin in South-central Montana in order to determine Early Paleocene climate and vegetation in this location.

FPS Product SalesPrices are for current FPS members onlyShipping and Handling Extra

Vinac 15 (price per pound) $7.00

MC Thomas, Beach and Bank Collecting $5.00

H Converse, Paleo Preperation Techniques $10.00

Hulbert, Fossil Vertebrates of Florida $31.00

Florida Fossil Invertebrates

Part 1, Eocene Echinoids $5.00

Part 2, Oligocene and Miocene Echinoids $5.00

Part 3, Pliocene and Pleistocene Echinoids $5.00

Part 4, Pliocene and Pleistocene

Decapod Crustaceans $5.00

Part 5, Eocene, Oligocene, and

Miocene Decapod Crustaceans $5.00

Part 6, Larger Foraminifera (Introduction) $5.00

Part 7, Larger Foraminifera (Common Taxa) $5.00

Part 8, Brachiopods $5.00

Part 9, Mollusca (Shoal River Formation) $7.00

Part 10, Eocene and Oligocene Corals TBA

Fossil Species of Florida

Number 1, Mammut americanum $4.00

Number 2, Tapirus veroensis $4.00

T-shirt (XL only) $10.00

Coffee Mug $4.00

Sales Tax (Florida residents) add 6.75%

To purchase the above items, please contact:

fps@fl mnh.ufl .edu

orGeorge Hecht, TreasurerFlorida Museum of Natural HistoryBox 117800University of FloridaGainesville, Florida 32611-7800

Page 11

The 2008 Gary S. Morgan Student Re-search Award Winner

Krista Church is a recent graduate from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science degree in Geog-raphy and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology. She was presented with the 2008 Gary S. Morgan Award prior to graduation and will use the fi nancial assistance for rare earth element analysis to help eluci-date chronological relationships between Pleistocene megafauna and humans at the famous Vero site.

Project title: RARE EARTH ANALYSIS OF PLEISTOCENE REMAINS FROM VERO, FL (81R9)

Project summary: The Vero site (81R9) is a locali-ty on the Atlantic coast of Florida originally exca-vated by E.H. Sellards, I.M. Weills, and F. Ayers beginning in 1913. The geology of the site was a subject of contention in the early 20th century due to the presence of fossil human remains asso-ciated with Pleistocene fauna, such as mammoth, tapir, and giant armadillo. While one pocket of the human remains is well within the confi nes of the strata bearing these Pleistocene fossils, anoth-er is captured at the contact of a more geologi-cally recent stratum. In order to better understand the chronological relationship between the Pleis-tocene fauna and the human remains, analysis of rare earth element (REE) contents in the bone will be conducted. REEs are absorbed rapidly by bone and are locked into the crystal lattice structure of the bone. The amount of REEs contained in the units is controlled by the pore water chemistry of the depositional environment, meaning mate-rial originating from the same layer should carry similar REE signals. The REE signals of samples collected from the pockets of human remains at

this contact point, as well as control samples of modern remains found within these layers, will be compared with samples taken from known extinct taxa from both layers in question. In the fi rst round of sampling, 27 speci-mens were prepared, measured, and run through an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICPMS) with the assistance of Dr. G. Kamenov in the UF Geosciences Department. This testing determined the concentrations of REEs within the bone samples, utilizing a very small amount of bone material removed from the specimens. The samples were extracted from the same level of os-teological tissue using a Dremel rotary tool. An additional 26 samples were prepared, signifi cantly increasing the sample size of the analysis and eve-ning out some gaps in the distribution of the sam-pling table. In addition to the analysis of these fos-sil specimens, REE signatures will be calculated for a sample of modern faunal samples from the same area for comparison. The results of this project may change our understanding of the earliest human occupation of Florida, as well as the movement of the fi rst hu-mans into North America. The remains at Vero may prove to be some of the earliest concrete os-teological remains in North America. Although absolute dating tests have been diffi cult for this collection, the relative measure of age has demon-strated that the extinct faunal remains contain the same REE signatures as the human remains at this site, indicating that they were deposited at the site around the same time. However, further sampling and study of these remains are necessary to make solid claims about the chronology of the site.

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